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Four Fitchburg siblings served in the military and returned home safely

By Katina Caraganis , kcaraganis@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
11/12/2012 10:03:36 AM EST

FITCHBURG -- Walter, Joseph, Philip and Richard Wells all shared a unique bond: The four boys from a Fitchburg family of eight children all served in the military.

Their story is reminiscent of the five Sullivan brothers who enlisted together and died together when their ship was sunk during World War II, and all the Sullivan brothers perished.

In the case of the Wells brothers, however, all came home from their wars.

Walter and Joseph served in the Army and Philip in the Navy during World War II, while Richard Wells was in the Army during the Korean conflict.

Joe Wells died in 2006 at 90, Walter Wells died in 1958 in his 30s, and Richard Wells died at 83 in 2011.

Philip Wells, 87, the only surviving member of the brothers, recalled the day they enlisted when he turned 18.

"I tried to be a Marine but their quota was full, and I didn't want to be in the Army like they were. I enlisted on May 20," said Wells. "The next day, the Marines called and said they had an opening, but I had already signed up with the Navy. Once you're aboard the ship and you're in the Navy, it sticks with you for life."

Wells was initially stationed on a training base in Kansas. He remembers pilots practicing their takeoffs and landings on outlying fields on the base. Radio operators were on standby in case someone was injured.

"I was an enlisted man and not a cadet, but they let me fly anyway.

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It's a good memory I have of being there," he said. "We would go out dancing in Kansas City, but that lasted about six or seven months and then I got bored so I asked for sea duty."

He was transferred to a mind sweeper in 1944 that patrolled the waters from Nova Scotia and Halifax to Virginia. After that, he was shipped to Bermuda, where he and other seamen were assigned to convoy duties.

"We did that until Hitler gave up and then we took the ship down through the Panama Canal to the Pacific," he said. "We operated out of the Seattle area until the war ended and then gave the ship up to the Russians."

Wells said he and his brothers were never concerned about serving together, especially in light of the tragedy that befell the Sullivan brothers, who enlisted in 1942 with the stipulation that they serve together. The Navy had a policy at the time of separating siblings, but it was not enforced.

The Sullivans were put on the USS Juneau, which was bombed and sank in November 1942. All the brothers perished, and as a result, the War Department adopted the sole-survivor policy in 1948 that stipulated that a sole surviving son or daughter would be excused from military service.

In 1971, the law was amended to include not only the sole surviving son or daughter but also any son or daughter who had a combat-related death in the family.

"The Navy made a big mistake when they put them all on one ship. When their ship went down, they all went down," Wells said. "My two brothers were in the Army, but stationed in different areas. If something did happen, it wouldn't have been more then one at a time."

Wells' niece, Martha Wells Quirk of Fitchburg said she has nothing but admiration for everything her father and uncles went through during the wars.

"They were a very proud family. They were proud of each other, and my father passed that pride on to me. I look at the pictures and I know the history of their whole family," she said, while indicating that she can only imagine the toll it had on the family when all the brothers went off to war.

"What a sacrifice it was for them to leave their lives and their families. I admire them for that. They fought for their country, and I will always have this sense of pride about all of them," she said.

Wells said he didn't have time to think about his brothers and his family while in the service, in large part because of the inability to communicate.

He said it was a strain on the family, and Wells worried about his brother Richard, who was in Korea.

"I did worry about him but we could keep in touch a bit. In those years when you're 20, 21 you aren't as sensitive as when you're older. If that was me now and he was in the service, I would be calling him every day."

Quirk said she and her uncle remain very close through phone calls, emails and visits.

After his service, Wells returned to Fitchburg for awhile and worked as a carpenter, a trade he picked up with the help of the G.I. Bill but eventually moved to Florida to be closer to his brother, Joe.

"I talk to him often, like once a month. I went down to see him last January in Florida. He's married, lives in a nice community and restores antique boats and they're beautiful," she said. "I always tell him he's an artist with boats. He's a very handsome guy. You'd never know he's 87 years old. He has four daughters who live throughout the country."

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